Archive for month: July, 2005

The Liberal State Thesis Regarding Parental Authority, Children’s Rights, and Homeschooling: How Far

Critiques the “liberal state thesis” that, among other things, promotes “the continued development and encroachment of the liberal state upon parental authority to homeschool children without undue interference and regulation of the government.” Offers a more positive view of homeschooling, and defends the responsibility of parental authority in determining their children’s educational delivery system.

Explains that the state-based approach to determining which values are passed on to succeeding generations resolves the difficulty of indiscriminate social reproduction (i.e., some values are reproduced and not others) but it is not self-evident that this is the right way to resolve the difficulty. Explores an alternative approach, “a dispersed model in which individuals and groups work independently to preserve what they most value in the society and to pass beliefs and moral commitments on to the next generation.” Argues that this approach “better fits the actual moral beliefs of parents and citizens; it is more likely to produce the outcomes parents want (or should want) for their own children and what adult citizens should want for all children.”

About NHERI

NHERI conducts homeschooling research, is a clearinghouse of research for the public, researchers, homeschoolers, the media, and policy makers, and educates the public concerning the findings of all related research. NHERI executes, evaluates, and disseminates studies and information (e.g., statistics, facts, data) on homeschooling (i.e., home schooling, home-based education, home education, home school, home-schooling, unschooling, deschooling, a form of alternative education), publishes reports and the peer-reviewed scholarly journal Home School Researcher, and serves in consulting, academic achievement tests, and expert witness (in courts and legislatures).